The Magic of Rainbow Rice Cake

Anais Choi

Age 7

The Magic of Rainbow Rice Cake

Minsoon came back from school and found that there was a full plate of rainbow rice cakes! It is not the same color as the rainbow, but it is called rainbow rice cake because there are many colors of rice cake.

“Look at that!” said Minsoon with a smile. It reminds Minsoon of good memories in Korea.

Minsoon visited Korea last year with his family. When he arrived at the airport in Korea, his grandmother was there to see Minsoon’s family, and she had a small bag in her hand.

As soon as Minsoon’s grandma saw Minsoon, she said to Minsoon, “Minsoon, you must be hungry. Please have this rice cake. You must like it. Its name is rainbow rice cake as you can see the color on it.”

When Minsoon saw and ate the cake, he said “Wow, what a beautiful rice cake! It looks like a magic cake! And it is so chewy and sweet. I love it.”

With his memorable experience with the rice cake, he wondered if he could take just one. However, his mom wasn’t there, but he wanted to eat one! So, he ate just one bite of the first color of the layer of the rice cake. It was a red one like the first color of the rainbow. And suddenly, he fell asleep and dreamed about love. Love is full of heart and cares for others with a warm heart, and the most important thing is how much you love others and are being loved. The dream takes him to the world of love. When he was there, he saw a family, and the people next to each other had a heart shape on their head. Whenever they showed their love to each other, the heart was added on their head one by one, and their smile looked bigger and bigger. Minsoon felt warmer and melted down with love. When he woke up, he really wanted to show his love to his family as he saw. He wanted to show his family about love, so he wrote love poetry to his mom.

[Do not Change]

I love you because you give me love. I love you because you give me kisses

So I don’t change because I love you.

I look everywhere but the only thing I see is you. You make my heart flow.

I love the rainbow and I love you. You look like my favorite stuff. Your happy face looks like a shining light telling me how to get home.

Your heart is my life. I love you. Wherever you go I’m going to follow you.

After a very surprising dream, Minsoon could not stop to eat the magic rainbow rice cake. He really wanted to know what he could explore with different colors of the rice cake. Now, he ate the orange colored rice cake, then he fell asleep again, but this dream wasn’t the same; it was about the world of patience. He was at a strange school, and one child was pushing in line to take a turn for a swing at a playground. Other children felt so frustrated. At that moment, a teacher was passing by him and tried to stop him from pushing other kids and talked about what patience is to him. The sun sets and the moon rises up. Some people love a bright sky, so they are waiting until the sun rises tomorrow. Night time is very long, and they feel like it’s forever, but they are waiting patiently. They waved to the moon and said, “Could you please let the sun come out soon? Because we really want to see the bright sky.”

However, the moon said to them, “Please wait until the sun rises, and you may sleep. You will see the very beautiful and bright sun as you wished.” The people are waiting and waiting very patiently.

Finally, the sun came out happily because the people waited for the sun. The sun said, “You did not give up on me, so you deserved it.”

And the people said to the sun, “You are more than welcome.” Also, the people were very thankful to the moon because the moon did not yell or cry but stayed in his mood and just waited until the sun came out . . .

The teacher said, “Are you now thankful for patience?”

And the student nodded and said, “Yes, I am.” He continued, saying, “I also think the moon showed his patience with his kindness.” His teacher loved his understanding.

Minsoon wanted to stay at the school and wanted to play with the kids, but

suddenly woke up from the dream and realized that the rice cake was magical! And he even found out that it changed him in a good way. He thought he would tell the dream to the class and his teacher at his school tomorrow.

Minsoon wanted to explore a more surprising world. Now, he ate the yellow colored rice cake, and he fell asleep again. He dreamed about happiness this time and what a surprise, the dream dragged him to his grandparents’ house in Korea! He visited his grandparents’ house in the summer two years ago. He remembered he was happy when he visited the place. He did many different and fun things with his grandparents and his family while he stayed at his grandparents’ house. He loved to eat his grandmother’s delicious foods, and it made him warm and thankful to his grandmother. He especially enjoyed his grandmother’s special Korean food, which was very spicy and traditional. After coming back to his home in America, Minsoon asked his mom to make the grandmother’s special food. Whenever he has the food, it reminds him of happy memories with his grandparents in Korea.

His grandfather also bought many gifts for Minsoon. One day, his grandfather took Minsoon to a toy store and he said with his very big smile, “Minsoon, whenever I passed by this toy store, I thought about you and really wanted to buy something for you because you mean a lot to me. I am very happy now because you and I are together in the store. Please have the toys you really want.”

Minsoon wanted to have the toy store but chose only one toy. Whenever he played with his toy from his grandpa, he often thought about his grandpa and his grandpa’s warm words because it really means a lot to Minsoon. So when Minsoon misses his grandpa, he plays with his toys and it makes him feel happy and warm.

Minsoon also traveled to some places with his family in Korea. Whenever they traveled, Minsoon’s grandparents held Minsoon’s hands tightly and walked around. Minsoon thought his grandparents’ hands were very warm and soft. He almost remembered it all! And it was actually so fun! Minsoon could not forget how big his parents’ smiles were and how bright his parents’ eyes were when they were with Minsoon’s grandparents. It also made Minsoon’s smile big and his eyes bright! On the day Minsoon’s family left Korea, his grandparents came to the airport to say goodbye. Minsoon was very sad when he saw his grandparents and sobbed. His grandma whispered in Minsoon’s ear, saying, “Ohh! It was a beautiful dream with you, and I would not forget every moment with you. Now I feel sad, but I know we’ll be together always in our mind. Whenever you miss me, look at the sky, then I will look at the sky thinking about you, too.”

At that moment, Minsoon suddenly woke up, and he thought, It was a really happy dream, and he just looked up at the sky thinking about his grandma. He wanted to explore more and more and wondered what world was waiting for him. So, he tried to taste the green colored part of the rice cake and right away he fell asleep. This time he dreamed about curiosity and creativity.

Minsoon saw one grown-up whose name is Mr. Odd, and Mr. Odd said to Minsoon, “Welcome to the odd playground. To get out of the odd playground, you must solve two problems, and you need to think creatively with your curiosity. OK, should we begin? Here is the first problem. Please choose six letters from the following sequence and make one word.” [SBIANXLEATHERNESS]

Minsoon thought and asked Mr. Odd, “It’s so hard. Can you give me a clue?”

The adult said, “Think about fruits.”

Minsoon thought hard. “Fruits that require six letters are . . . I don’t think there’s a lot. Well . . .”

And Mr. Odd said, “You like this fruit, don’t you? I know you eat this everyday in the morning. Also, monkeys like this fruit, too.”

The word finally came to Minsoon’s mind. “Oh, OK. I think I know. It’s BANANA!”

Mr. Odd said to Minsoon, “That’s right. You did a great job! That’s the answer. So, shall we move on to the next problem? The next problem is about this box. There is an item in the box here. What do you think of this item? You may think about what you need the most now.”

Minsoon thought about it very hard. “What I need the most now? Well . . . I should get out of here. This is the most important because my family is waiting for me, so I really need a key that shows me to open the door of this odd playground.”

Mr. Odd smiled and said, “Sounds great. Here is the key you want. Try to open the door, and you should be good to go.” He added, “You’re such a creative and fun kid. Curiosity and creativity are very important. If you think carefully and think deeply, your creativity will also improve so that you can know clearly what you want later.”

Minsoon listened to him carefully, and suddenly, Mr. Odd disappeared. Also, Minsoon could finally open the door with the key of wisdom and finally come out from the odd playground.

When Minsoon woke up, he thought the dream was somewhat odd and strange but also very fun. He wanted to go back to the odd playground to

meet Mr. Odd and wanted to explore the place more.

Minsoon tried to write down notes about what he had seen and he saw in his dream before his mom came and hid his notes under his bed. Suddenly, he heard something from him. It was his mom. Mom said to him, “Minsoon, how was your school today? Did you eat the rainbow rice cake on the table? I went to a Korean market today and found one there. I remembered you really loved to eat that rice cake when we went to Korea, so I wanted to give it to you as a special snack today.”

Minsoon replied, “Mom, I was surprised it was here, and it was so delicious and special. I loved it. Believe it or not, I had really special and fun dreams while I was eating it.”

“What dream? Minsoon, that is just rice cake. Hahaha!” Mom could not understand what Minsoon said to her. And then, Minsoon asked Mom to buy one more rice cake from the K-market. However, Mom said, “That was the only one there, so there are no more at the market. Sorry about that. When we visit Korea next time, you can have it as much as you can.”

Now, Minsoon thinks someday he will go to Korea and wants to have another magical dream with the rainbow rice cake.

THE END